More Pictures of China

This picture will give you an idea of what Ping An looked like while we were being carried up to that wonderful hotel.
The buildings are mostly of wood and quite densely situated.
More of the rice terraces.
A woman working in the rice fields.

After we left Beijing, we flew to Guilin which is the area of China that is so famous for the limestone karsts and terraced rice paddies. We didn't stay in Guilin, but went directly to Ping An, the perched village I've already told you about. The scenery from Guilin to Ping An was spectacular, although the weather was a bit hazy so a lot of the pictures didn't turn out very well. The people in these small villages are living just as they have been for hundreds of years. What a hard life it is but they seem really happy. One of the villages is famous for its women who supposedly have the longest hair in the world. They only get it cut three times in their lives--once when they are 18, once when they are married and one other time (can't remember when), but even then it is only cut a little bit and their hair is many feet long. They approach you and say Long Hair Long Hair you want picture? Then they charge you if you take a picture. We were feeling a little exploited by that so we didn't bite.